The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) is an academic competition for high school students in the United States. The United States Academic Decathlon National Championship, first held in 1982, pits winners at the state level against each other for a national title.[2] The Academic Decathlon consists of 10 events: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, math, music, science, social science, and speech.[3] To solve the problem of the competition becoming a hendecathlon, the Super Quiz replaces one of the seven objective events; since 2003, it has alternated between replacing science and social science.[4] The Academic Decathlon requires participation from students of all levels of academic ability; teams generally consist of nine members, who are divided into three divisions based on grade point average: Honors (3.75–4.0 GPA), Scholastic (3.00–3.74 GPA), and Varsity (0.00–2.99 GPA). Though teams consist of nine members (three from each category), only the top two individuals from each category are counted in the final team score.[5] Each student has the possibility of scoring up to 10,000 points, for a combined team score of 60,000.

At the national competition, Schools compete based on size and are divided into three divisions (I, II, and III). However, this separation is only limited to overall team score and overall individual score. Nine overall team medals are awarded: gold, silver and bronze for each division. Similarly, 27 overall individual medals are awarded: gold, silver and bronze for Honors, Scholastic and Varsity in each division. The rest of the medals—for example, gold in art for Honors, or silver in math for Varsity—are awarded to the top scoring persons regardless of division.[6]

In April 1982, the first Nationals was held at Loyola Marymount University in California—16 states and the District of Columbia participated.[7] However, the competition's founder, Dr. Robert Peterson, was inspired by the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He hoped to make Academic Decathlon an international event,[8] and so at the 1984 Nationals, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand fielded teams in addition to teams from 32 U.S. states.[9] The inclusion of foreign countries did not become a regular occurrence, however. There was no more international participation until 1989, when teams from Northern Ireland and Rio de Janeiro competed.[10] Since then, a school from British Columbia, Canada, and an international school from London, England are the only two foreign competitors to have competed at Nationals, having done so in 2004 and 2009 respectively.[11][12][13] Since the first national event in 1982, there have been 28 national champions, all of which have come from three states: California, Texas and Wisconsin. The reigning national champion is Moorpark High School from Ventura, California, led by coach Larry Jones.

In 2006, the small school virtual competition was created for schools with 650 or fewer students.[14] Two years later, the medium school virtual competition was added to accommodate schools with a student population between 650 and 1300.[15] In 2010, the virtual competition was expanded to include large schools by allowing the second-highest performing school in each state to compete in a large school e-Nationals.[16] These contests are held via the internet and as such, the Interview and Speech events are excluded. The remaining eight tests are completed on the computer and results are submitted electronically to USAD for scoring. Because only the seven multiple choice tests and Essay are used, team scores are out of 48,000 points instead of 60,000. Despite it being a virtual competition, winning schools are awarded trophies and medals for their efforts.[17] According to USAD, the goal of the small and medium school competitions is to "enhance learning, growth and recognition" for more schools participating in Academic Decathlon.[14][15]

Moorpark records the highest team score ever, beating the Wisconsin team, Waukesha West, by 23 points.[46] Additionally, Alli Blonski of Waukesha West scored 9,321, the highest individual score in the competition's history at the time.[47]